Teruhisa Kitahara

This book is actually 3 books from 1988 combined as 1 book in 1997 and published by Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers. The oversize edition contains photos of the Japanese-made toy collection of Teruhisa Kitahara. It ranges from the celluloid toys of the 1930s to the tin toys of the 1950s and 1960s.
As a fan of tin friction vehicles, I am always pleased to find photos of collections.
Unfortunately, although the photos are wonderful – large and clear – the only descriptions are the dimensions, maker (if known), and the decade of production. Any of the few random notes are evidently poorly translated from Japanese and frequently puzzling. I noticed the absence of some important pieces in the robot category, so this is not a complete collection by any means.
The first section covers dolls, clowns, and animals; the second section covers planes, trains, boats, and cars; and the third section covers robots, spaceships, and monsters.
YESTERDAY’S TOYS has a glaring weakness in the lack of background information on the toys. If, for example, the author knew a certain toy was “based on a television character”, it would have been nice to include what the name of that character was. Anything that might indicate how one could research further would have been appreciated, such as the dates that the television program ran. Also, there are some pictures, not many, with no information at all. Those of us who don’t read Japanese don’t know exactly what we are looking at if the graphic in the photo is in Japanese.
As I’ve said, the collection is good and the photos are wonderful, but unless you are already familiar with toy collectibles I’d recommend that you look elsewhere for education in this field.… (más)

This book is actually 3 books from 1988 combined as 1 book in 1997 and published by Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers. The oversize edition contains photos of the Japanese-made toy collection of Teruhisa Kitahara. It ranges from the celluloid toys of the 1930s to the tin toys of the 1950s and 1960s.
As a fan of tin friction vehicles, I am always pleased to find photos of collections.
Unfortunately, although the photos are wonderful – large and clear – the only descriptions are the dimensions, maker (if known), and the decade of production. Any of the few random notes are evidently poorly translated from Japanese and frequently puzzling. I noticed the absence of some important pieces in the robot category, so this is not a complete collection by any means.
The first section covers dolls, clowns, and animals; the second section covers planes, trains, boats, and cars; and the third section covers robots, spaceships, and monsters.
YESTERDAY’S TOYS has a glaring weakness in the lack of background information on the toys. If, for example, the author knew a certain toy was “based on a television character”, it would have been nice to include what the name of that character was. Anything that might indicate how one could research further would have been appreciated, such as the dates that the television program ran. Also, there are some pictures, not many, with no information at all. Those of us who don’t read Japanese don’t know exactly what we are looking at if the graphic in the photo is in Japanese.
As I’ve said, the collection is good and the photos are wonderful, but unless you are already familiar with toy collectibles I’d recommend that you look elsewhere for education in this field.… (más)